Forest fire season could go into the fall, warn fire scientists
- Kaitlynn Nordal | May 19, 2019
Fire scientists warn forest fire season could rage late into the summer and continue into the fall.
On May 15, the Natural Resources Canada’s Northern Forestry Centre held a conference for Canada’s fire scientists in Edmonton, Alberta, where they discussed the 2019 fire season forecast and the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System Forecast (CWFIS) interface.
Amy Cardinal Christianson, who works for the Canadian Forest Service as a Fire Social Scientist, was one of the women at the conference.
Cardinal Christianson’s work primarily focuses on Indigenous fire stewardship, looking how Indigenous communities used fire, ways they are impacted by fire, how to improve agency response and help communities.
“I think the idea about today was about just being able to connect Canadians with some of the science that has been happening at our Centre surrounding fire and reducing and preparing for fire this year,” she said.
In the technical briefing, they discussed projections for the 2019 fire season ,which are based on seasonal forecasts.
“May will be kind of below average across most of the country. Then in June and July it’s looking like the west will have an increased risk of wild fire. August and September that will continue unfortunately in B.C. and then also extend across the Prairie provinces,” she explained.
Cardinal Christianson has her PhD in human geography and fire management after developing an interest in fire and burning and what can be done to reduce risks from growing up in northern Saskatchewan and seeing them every summer.
“Indigenous knowledge has a lot to offer in terms of fire management and reducing fire risks and so one of the things I work on a lot is revitalizing cultural burning practices in communities,” said Cardinal Christianson.
“There’s just so much knowledge and wisdom about fire out there that I often think it is overlooked,” she said.
She explained global warming studies that have been done show that First Nations reserves are the most at risks when it comes to fires this season.
“Our research is actually showing that for First Nations reserves that they will actually have the highest fire return intervals in all of Canada,” she said.
“So, for me that means that because of this increased risk to our communities, and especially in the west, that we really need to start working with Indigenous knowledge and supporting communities that want to bring back burning practices that want to train fire fighters, that are looking to do fire smart activities either on reserve on around their community,” Cardinal Christianson continued.
Although wildland fire management in Canada is the responsibility of the provinces and territories Natural Resources Canada – Canadian Forest Service (NRCan-CFS) partners with them to come up with that years’ best laid plan for predicted fires. This year NRCan had a budget of just over $2 million for fire science activities.